RFT 📰

Thursday 03/09 Full Circle Join six-string aficionados Chris King and Tom Hall as they present the Guitar Circle at Schlafly Tap Room (2100 Locust Street, 314-241-2337) this Thursday, March 9.

When the St. Louis Battlehawks host the home opener this Sunday, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson says he’s expecting a big crowd. Not just a big crowd –– but the biggest crowd in the XFL this season by a wide margin. He’s expecting 30,000 fans on Sunday at 3 p.m. when the Battlehawks take the field against the Arlington Renegades in The Dome at America's Center.

A 31-year-old woman pleaded guilty to murder Monday in court in St. Charles, admitting that she killed a man who left bad reviews about her on a website that connects sex workers to clients.  Paige T’eva Layne has now been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The union representing workers at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday overwhelmingly rejected furloughs demanded by the daily's Iowa-based owner, Lee Enterprises. Lee had asked workers at publications across the U.S. to take two weeks of unpaid vacation. With yesterday's vote, the St. Louis-based writers and ad sales staff who comprise the membership of the United Media Guild replied with a resounding "no." 

A group of Democrats, including St. Louis’ own Cori Bush, have established a congressional caucus to eliminate homelessness in the U.S.  The caucus will advocate for funding federal programs vital for serving unhoused people and act as a dedicated forum for members of congress to combat homelessness in the U.S. 

The STL Mystic Fair is coming to Bridgeton at the end of the month. But if you’re a psychic, you probably already knew that, huh?

A new report in the Guardian has St. Louis ranking highly — but it's not something to brag about: The British publication says swaths of the metro area are among the 10 most polluted in the U.S. The paper boasts that it used "cutting-edge modeling" developed by researchers at institutions including the University of Washington. It reveals something that anyone who paid attention to Wash U's "For the Sake of All" report already knew — that race is a huge predictor of health due to the inequalities that plague neighborhoods with a significant minority population, and that, in America, "neighborhoods burdened by the worst pollution are overwhelmingly the same places where Black and Hispanic populations live."

Donnal Chung dreams of revolutionizing the restaurant industry. In his culinary fantasy world, there would be no chains, no menus with tables of contents and you'd never see a taco at a pizza restaurant.

Bibliophiles assemble! One of the best book fairs of the whole year is coming back again soon. The Greater St. Louis Book Fair returns to Queeny Park (550 Weidman Road; Ballwin MO 63011) from Thursday, May 4, through Monday, May 8.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis does a lot to remind folks that opera isn’t stodgy, it isn’t old and it isn’t dead. Instead, opera is an art form that can be used to tell powerful modern stories. That’s what Opera Theatre will showcase with its New Works Collective, three 20-minute operas about three very different stories that run Thursday, March 16, through Saturday, March 18.

Free-spirited country-rock belter Elle King packed the Pageant last night, a stop on her A-Freakin’-Men Tour, named after a lyric from her new album’s lead single, “Try Jesus,” a song she didn’t get around to playing in St. Louis.  “When people play the same fucking sets in every city, that sucks,” she declared midway through the hour-and-45-minute set, referencing her tendency to change things up. 

For 10 years, Food Pedaler has brought food to the doors of people in the Central West End and downtown via bike. The RFT caught up with owner Alex Ward as his company celebrates its decade anniversary.

The scion of a long-standing political family in St. Louis city has been voted out of office. Voters eliminated Ward 3 Alderman Brandon Bosley from the running for the new redistricted 14th Ward in Tuesday's primary. Bosley is the son of former Ward 3 Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. and brother of the city's first Black mayor, Freeman Bosley Jr.

Styles P 8 p.m. Saturday, March 11. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street.

Political newcomer Michael Browning emerged victorious in yesterday's Ward 9 aldermanic primary, but it's unclear who his opponent will be in the general election next month. Almost half of voters in Ward 9, which centers on the Central West End and Forest Park Southeast, cast a ballot for Browning, who works as a grant writer for Washington University.

In May of 2022, the revelation that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade left the nation reeling and dominated headlines. Galvanized Maplewood activists rose up and vowed to never stop fighting — to shut down a neighborhood donut shop after it made a peanut allergy joke on social media. As the nation and world engages in an epic battle between right and left, within the 1.5 square miles that make up the inner-ring suburb of Maplewood, the 8,000 residents are witnessing a hyper-local and far more personal war between fringe left versus left-of-center.

In the early morning of January 7, fire ravaged the Sanctuary. It had been more than a decade since anyone worshiped in the north city church.

Neil Salsich is off and running on NBC’s The Voice.  The fact that the St. Louis singer would be a contestant on the upcoming season of The Voice had been the worst-kept secret in town for several weeks.

What we can definitely say is that celebrated St. Louis mixologists Meredith Barry (Platypus, Netflix's Drink Masters) and Michael Fricker (Grand Spirits Bottle Co., Gin Room and Salve Osteria) are teaming up to open a new cocktail lounge this spring. They say it will be located within Grand Spirits, a natural wine shop that opened in December of 2021. They say it will going be about experimental drinks and be an "exploration of creativity" for Barry and Fricker.

Ray Williams has taken shelter under the President Casino Laclede’s Landing pavilion near downtown St. Louis on and off for the past three years. He likes watching sunrises and sunsets from the Mississippi River.